Born Adam Noah Levine in Los Angeles, California in 1979, singer-songwriter Adam Levine turns 34 years old today. Levine attendedBrentwoodSchoolin LA where he met future band mates Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Ryan Dusick whom together formed the band Kara’s Flowers.

The band achieved very little success upon release of its first album, and when they broke up, Adam and fellow musician Jesse Carmichael moved to New York to attend Five Towns College, a performing arts school. Levine credits his time spent in New York as a major influence on him musically.

In 2000, the members of Kara’s Flowers reunited in Los Angeles with the addition of guitarist James Valentine to form the band Maroon 5. Their debut album, Songs About Jane, went platinum, and Maroon 5 received a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2004. Follow-up albums It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, Hands All Over, and Overexposed have also achieved great commercial success.

Aside from his thriving music career, Adam Levine has made appearances on Saturday Night Live and Comedy Central’s “A Night of Too Many Stars.” In 2012, Levine landed a recurring role on the television series American Horror Story and he is currently coach on the NBC’s singing contest show, The Voice. He is an avid supporter of causes that advance the awareness of testicular cancer, ADHD, and gay rights.

Luck is an uncontrollable and unpredictable force that can shape your life in a favorable or unfavorable way. Good luck charms, talismans, and rituals vary greatly depending on where you live and what your beliefs are. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to look into the different forms of luck around the world. Read on and maybe you will find something new to try to switch your luck in a different direction.

Depending on where you are in the world, luck can come in a variety of forms. Many different animals are thought to bring luck. In China, dragons, fish, elephants, and cranes have been known to represent good luck and prosperity. Tigers are also considered to be protectors against evil in China. Across Asia, crickets are also a sign of luck. This has been seen in popular culture in movies like Mulan, where the title character carries a cricket friend with her. Scarabs have been thought to bring good fortune since ancient Egyptian times, and ladybugs are also widely believed to be a lucky insect. Germanic cultures have often seen the pig as a lucky animal, and dolphins were symbols of luck in several ancient cultures including Greece, Sumer, Egypt, and Rome. For Christians and Native Americans, the dolphin is a symbol of protection, and its image is said to bring good luck. Certain animal parts have also been linked to luck. Western cultures have a long-held belief that rubbing a rabbit’s foot will bring you good luck, and alligator teeth are supposedly good luck for gamblers. Another well-known symbol is the horseshoe, which when hung with the open side up is a bringer of luck.

If you’re doing some traveling, and looking for luck in places you visit, we’ve found a few well-known lucky locations across the globe. In Ireland, kissing the famous Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle has been said to endow the kisser with the gift of eloquence and good luck in communicative skills. The Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine in Japan has been noted as a lucky spot for entrepreneurs to travel. The United States is home to some lucky spots as well. In Seattle, rubbing the nose of Rachel, a 700-pound bronze pig in Pike Place Market will bring luck. Hoover Dam is home to a 30-foot sculpture who is said to bring you luck when you rub her feet. Lincoln’s tomb in Illinois is a noticeably different color on his nose, where visitors have rubbed for luck. Back in Europe, a visit to the statue of St. John Nepomuk in Prague is said to bring visitors luck and guarantee a return visit to Prague someday. Be sure to pay proper respect to Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, before heading off on any journey.

Wherever you are in the world, you are sure to find ways to improve your luck and perhaps turn it around!

No, we’re not talking about delicious sandwiches here. Irish engineer John Philip Holland first conducted a successful trial run of his submarine, the Holland VI, on March 17, 1898. It took a dive under the water and resurfaced near Staten Island, New York. The Holland VI was the United States Navy’s first commissioned submarine, and her name remained on the Naval Vessel Register until 1910.

Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Born on November 20, 1858 in western Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf had a hip injury early in life, which led to sickness and left her lame in both legs. She loved reading and eventually worked as a school teacher when she came of age. After winning a publishing contract for Gösta Berling’s Saga, she gave up teaching for good to focus on her writing career.

Lagerlöf won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909; she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and become a member of the academy. She was most known for Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventure of Nils), a children’s book. She was an integral part of women’s rights in Sweden and the women’s suffrage movement.

March 15, or the Ides of March, is best known as the date of Julius Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C.

Caesar had been losing favor with the senate for some time before his actual assassination. As “Dictator for Life”, Caesar was not popular with members of the republican Senate, whom he would repeatedly undermine. The murder plot was the brainchild of Cassius Longinus and Marcus Brutus, but the group involved 60 or so co-conspirators.

Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times at the senate meeting next to Pompey’s Theatre. Supposedly, someone tried to warn Caesar of his impending doom upon entering the hall, but he took no notice of it.

Samuel Truett Cathy is the founder of the nation’s second largest fast food chicken restaurant, Chik-fil-A.

Cathy was born on March 14, 1921 in Eatonton, Georgia. He served in the United States Army during World War II, and upon his release he and his brother opened the Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. This later transformed into the Chik-fil-A we know and love today.

March 13 is National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day! We all know the age-old superstition that opening an umbrella indoors will bring you bad luck, and today is meant to put that superstition to test!

Most of us go through life not questioning the origin of the superstitions we choose to go along with or laugh at, but it’s possible that this particular superstition got its start in ancient Egypt. Egyptian nobility or religious leaders used umbrellas to shade themselves from harsh light of the sun and to keep at bay evil spirits that might have done them harm. Opening an umbrella inside, or even in the shade, was thought to be unlucky because it was a sign of disrespect toward the God of the Sun. It is also thought that perhaps this superstition was developed in 18th century London. At this time, large waterproof umbrellas with metal spokes came into popularity. Because of their size, they were awkward to open, and when opened inside could break objects or injure others. It was thus dubbed unlucky to open these large contraptions indoors.

Today’s unofficial holiday was created by Thomas Edward Knibb of Frederick, Maryland in 2003. He created the day in an effort to defy the superstition and encourage people to test its credibility by throwing caution to the wind and opening your umbrella inside.

You can celebrate today by grabbing your favorite umbrella, making sure you are clear of any breakable objects or poke-able eyes, and opening it in an indoor space. Be sure to take note of any bad luck you have following your brave indoor umbrella endeavor so you can decide for yourself if this superstition is something you should take seriously or not!

Celebrate National Jewel Day by buying a piece of jewelry for a special woman in your life. Whether it’s your wife, girlfriend, best friend, sister, or mother, every woman loves getting a new piece of jewelry. Or, you can be a little selfish and treat yourself to something nice from the jewelry store. However you celebrate jewel day, remember, it’s the thought that counts!